Game Changers - some thoughts...

Game Changers…

The biggest thing that jumped out at me was the constant narrative of comparing a PBD with processed animal based FAST FOOD. Anything tested against fast food is going to come out on top.

First though… Let’s look at the people involved shall we?
James & Suzy Amis Cameron – exec producers – both own vegan supplement companies.
Jackie Chan – Vegan
Arnie – involved with a supplement company – seen him eat steak first hand so, business is business.

There are 7 doctors also involved in the documentary, all of which happen to be Vegan, be authors of Vegan books, have interests in Vegan supplement companies, or a combination of all 3. Let’s get someone who owns a steakhouse to repeat the documentary?

Strongman
The dude gained 25kg of body mass whilst apparently on a PBD. This doesn’t factor in that his total fat-mass probably increased too, was probably consuming more protein in general, and er… Performing Enhancing Drugs perhaps?! It’s an untested competition so… yeah. Final point; 2 people have broken his record since, both meat eaters.

Diaz v McGregor
The documentary plays heavily on Diaz (PBD) beating McGregor (Non PBD) in an MMA bout. Lots of emphasis is placed on McGregor eating steak regularly. My issue? Diaz had lost 10 fights before that, were they all Vegans? No. He also lost the rematch. The documentary have zoned in and cherry picked. Diaz also smokes a lot of Cannabis. I'm not sure there's a documentary promoting Cannabis for sports performance in the pipeline. It’s like 2 electricians winning the lottery in the same year and someone claiming being an electrician makes you more likely to become a millionaire.

The blood tests.
3 NFL players are fed and then give blood samples shortly after where the plasma is separated to show how cloudy or not it is. One is fed a vegan burrito, the other 2 not. The footballer having the plant based meal produces much clearer plasma in the blood. This is nothing to do with him being “Plant based” – it’s more to do with him having eaten something lower in fat. He didn’t need to consume a vegan meal to produce clearer blood plasma results than someone having eaten a very fatty meal.

Inflammation.
They’re pretty strong on wanting to highlight that meat causes inflammation, yet constantly cite hamburgers. You don’t need to rush to university to understand that swapping hamburgers for nutrient dense food might just treat your body better. The study they bang on about does not take in to account that the people with high inflammation levels from higher red meat intake also had high BMI’s, i.e. they were overweight. Guess what drives inflammation? Being overweight.

Plant Protein v Animal Protein.
To get 30g of protein from chicken, you’d only need to consume roughly 100g.
To get the same 30g protein from lentils, you’d need to consume over 320g of lentils. In a lot of cases the Plant Based alternative will also be higher in Carbohydrates and Fats, making the calorie content higher. This means you simply must consume less of it, which means less protein. Most plant sources are very low in Leucine, the main Amino Acid in Protein needed for Muscle Protein Synthesis. Most are also low in the other essential’s too.

Oh and the peanut butter sandwich having more protein than 3 eggs or a steak? Well yeah, if you consume it in the amounts needed, which will also give you double the calories because of the fat.

The Battle Ropes.
From 8 minutes to 45 minutes just by changing diets? Over 400% increase in muscular endurance and aerobic capacity from switching to a PBD? Really? Even if we sided with him for a second, he shows himself up because he’s been a Vegan since 2011, way before he even managed the 8 minutes or got the injury he bangs on about! Not just exaggerated but a downright lie.

Cherry Picking
If 100 studies are done on the same thing, 90 showing 1 outcome, and 10 showing the other, and you make a documentary highlighting the 10, that is called Cherry Picking. You’re ignoring the 90 that contradict your “desired” outcome. The majority of the documentary is based on this.

Vegan Bodybuilders.
I reckon 95-99% of bodybuilders are meat eaters. The documentary wants to highlight a handful of successful plant-based ones. Oh and… *cough* injecting testosterone *cough*.

If you want to be vegan or reduce consumption of animal products for ethical reasons, I tip my hat to you, Netflix however isn’t a credible place for enhancing your health or sports performance.

*I'd read Layne Norton's review prior to writing, therefore there may be crossovers. If you want a more scientific breakdown of the documentary I'd recommend reading his review.